Sahraschweiss
Songster
I thought I did it right.
This is my second year with chickens. In February, I decided to expand my flock by adding blue and green egg layers. I found a local breeder that is active on my local groups. He had cream legbars and silverudds among others. Purchased 6 birds. 2 creams and 4 silverudds. All 3 weeks old. Very quickly I found that 3 of my silverudds were cockerels. No worries, I had a good breeder that had agreed to take the boys back.
I kept my 3 new girls in a brooder in the house for 4 weeks. There was a bump in the beginning with Coccidiosis in the beginning, but I treated for that and it cleared up. After 4 weeks I moved them to the see no touch section of the coop and run. After two weeks I merged. The girls stayed together but never really chickened like the others. I wrote it off as being different breeds to my existing collection of 20-- buffs, rocks, wyandottes, sussexs, and sexlinks.
Then around 17 weeks the first cream had leg paralysis. I tried so many things with that girl. Vitamins, syringe feeding...vet visits. We had her culled when we got the blood panel back for Marek's.
A week after that my year old Sussex had what we thought was a respiratory infection that wouldn't respond to antibiotics. She died. She was a strange girl that hard molted her first winter before she turned a year.
Then sudden death of the other cream.
Then one of my 1 year old wyandottes had rapidly developed tumors at the feather follicles. Lab work consistent with Marek's. She was culled. She hard molted her first winter before turning a year too.
Then sudden death of third new girl, the silverudd. Her comb never stood up. We suspected heart condition, but didn't get a necropsy.
During the time when new girls were in quarantine, one of the buffs hatched 4 barnyard mixes. Now one from that group was culled today for ocular Marek's. He was 22 weeks.
It seems that for the past several weeks, everyday I go out to the coop thinking, who is it going to be this time.
The coop is 8 x 12 with forced air ventilation. They have a 3,500 square feet of a completely enclosed aviary protected by hotwire. Water is a circulating system with UVA filtration.
All of my birds are pets. They have names. We give treats, have evening drinks. They chill at my feet and chatter at me with soft murmurs and purrs. Same with my 2 roosters.
This is my second year, and boy has it been a hard one.
I quarantined for 4 weeks and still brought disease into my flock. Now what do I do? A mass cull of current seemingly healthy birds seems pointless and cruel. Marek's is every where they have been and can stay there for years if I understand correctly. To start over would mean moving.
This is my second year with chickens. In February, I decided to expand my flock by adding blue and green egg layers. I found a local breeder that is active on my local groups. He had cream legbars and silverudds among others. Purchased 6 birds. 2 creams and 4 silverudds. All 3 weeks old. Very quickly I found that 3 of my silverudds were cockerels. No worries, I had a good breeder that had agreed to take the boys back.
I kept my 3 new girls in a brooder in the house for 4 weeks. There was a bump in the beginning with Coccidiosis in the beginning, but I treated for that and it cleared up. After 4 weeks I moved them to the see no touch section of the coop and run. After two weeks I merged. The girls stayed together but never really chickened like the others. I wrote it off as being different breeds to my existing collection of 20-- buffs, rocks, wyandottes, sussexs, and sexlinks.
Then around 17 weeks the first cream had leg paralysis. I tried so many things with that girl. Vitamins, syringe feeding...vet visits. We had her culled when we got the blood panel back for Marek's.
A week after that my year old Sussex had what we thought was a respiratory infection that wouldn't respond to antibiotics. She died. She was a strange girl that hard molted her first winter before she turned a year.
Then sudden death of the other cream.
Then one of my 1 year old wyandottes had rapidly developed tumors at the feather follicles. Lab work consistent with Marek's. She was culled. She hard molted her first winter before turning a year too.
Then sudden death of third new girl, the silverudd. Her comb never stood up. We suspected heart condition, but didn't get a necropsy.
During the time when new girls were in quarantine, one of the buffs hatched 4 barnyard mixes. Now one from that group was culled today for ocular Marek's. He was 22 weeks.
It seems that for the past several weeks, everyday I go out to the coop thinking, who is it going to be this time.
The coop is 8 x 12 with forced air ventilation. They have a 3,500 square feet of a completely enclosed aviary protected by hotwire. Water is a circulating system with UVA filtration.
All of my birds are pets. They have names. We give treats, have evening drinks. They chill at my feet and chatter at me with soft murmurs and purrs. Same with my 2 roosters.
This is my second year, and boy has it been a hard one.
I quarantined for 4 weeks and still brought disease into my flock. Now what do I do? A mass cull of current seemingly healthy birds seems pointless and cruel. Marek's is every where they have been and can stay there for years if I understand correctly. To start over would mean moving.
